100 lbs of old cell phones

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jonathan1979

Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
12
Hello every body. I have been reading post for weeks now and have been collecting lots of different kinds of scrap. the most is cell phones. i have a deal with a cell phone shop to collect ones they don't use for parts. Do you guys think 100lbs of old cell phones is enough to start refining ? i have taken apart about 30lbs so far . prying chips of boards ect. I have the makings for a sulfuric gold cell . I was going to try to de plate cell phone boards first . and ball mill everything else. Any suggestions would be great . thank you guys . I love this place!
 
Welcome to the forum.
I think you need to do a lot more research before you attempt any refining.
The sulphuric cell is really only any good for plated metallic items such as plated jewellery and pins from boards.
My suggestion would be to find lazersteve on here and use his signature line to visit his site and also use the search function top right of your screen and view posts covering cell phones to see what other members are doing. A big must is to read the safety section on the main board as your health is more important than any gold and as a bonus as you read and learn you can still be collecting more scrap for the day your ready to start.
 
Yes i am very cautious.I appreciate your concern. I have a very broad background. this is just a hobby. I have been working with hydrogen generators and wind mills and solar panels for years. I was an industrial machine technician for years.Worked with chemicals and have a strong science back round. Also i practice safe lab procedures. I have been depopulating cell phone boards for awhile and have accumulated alot. I just want to clip a lead on the ground points on the boards.Give them a quick dip in the cell and then put them aside for further recovery. I also have about 5 pounds of gold plated pins and ect. I have already completed a test batch of finger foils using AP per the gold videos. Alot of the gold trace i have seen is Along the outside of the boards, and connected to the negative in many places.
 
That old phones are with batteries or not? Battery may be 60% of weight in some cases. I have found that pins in phones are very small so I dont think cell is ideal. Probably dilute nitric or HCL which is bit slower will be better choice. IC from boards need to be milled first ti get metals inside. I depopulated boards as much as I could then AP. Most of gold remained on boards but AP or HCl will removed mostly all base metals from board. Next I gave them short soak in HCl/Cl to get that visible gold. Only couple of seconds.
 
I removed all the batteries , and clipped gold contacts off them. It was a lot of the weight. I still have about 60 lbs of populated boards. I have to finish my ball mill. I am looking for a cheap source of (abrasive material) what do you use in your ball mill?
 
I want to try boards like these in the sulfuric gold cell
 

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It might well work but the downside is the amount of time to de plate quantities of these and the returns from them. I'm far from an expert on e scrap but I feel these would be better suited to AP where you remove the foils for later refining and if you have quantities will be much easier and probably quicker than stripping each one. The other point to remember is that concentrated sulphuric is extremely dangerous and needs treating with respect. Go visit Lazessteves site and watch his videos and buy those that are relevant to what you want to achieve, it'll be the best investment you could make if you want to learn the processes that you will need to learn to recover and refine your gold.
 
I would never run that type of material in a sulfuric stripping cell. Having said that I do not process much in the way of electronic scrap, but oddly enough most electronic scrap I do process is well suited to the sulfuric stripping cell.

Nick made a good call, AP would be the way to proceed but pre-treatment may be needed depending on the masking present.
 
My experience with this type of board is taht I would use HCl to get rid of base metals visible, then AP with bit more H2O2 and tootbrush. Fastest however is to dip them in HCl/Cl - gold will dissolve in a matter of seconds, clean with water spray bottle to another vessel. Any powder reclaimed later when drop gold from HCl/Cl will need to be rinsed and washed properly.
 
I think i am going to continue with acid refining process. The sulfuric cell was fun , watching all the fizzing but very time consuming . I just need to find a good cheap abrasive for my almost complete ball mill. Any recent ideas?
 
I have read the thread in its entirety.Normally I would suggest you do a little research and make sure you are knowledgable of what you want to do before you try it.....however you appear to have a somewhat knowledgable background with chemicals so I will just simply ask that you please be careful.
As far as your ball mill,this is the gentleman I purchased my media from
http://shop.ebay.com/donsmooresales/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
He's has a good variety at good prices.His name is don,and I bought my media outside of ebay and even went back and bought more.
 
Thank you Mic. That ebay lead is great!! I am all in with ball mill building I am going to run the mill with 36vdc motor with a 30 to 1 gear box and a speed controller. the range after gear box will be 0 to 100 rpm and lots of torque. I still have not decided how to make or found a suitable drum. I was thinking a air compressor tank would work.
 
I wouldnt suggest that.Chances are the metal will be thin and the diameter will be too small.Last year I built a 22 inch mill using a large propane tank.It works like a dream.I will be out of town all day,but if you want to talk send me a PM with your number (and time zone) and I will try to give you a call later tonight and help you.Heck I'll even send you the balls I bought for barren..........just kidding barren :mrgreen:
But I do in fact have more than I need right now.
 

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